Introduction
Happiness at the workplace is an essential topic for the UAE and should be researched more cohesively. The government of the UAE is already working on strategies that will allow enhancing productivity and engagement of individuals. However, a need to present a plan for improving the worker’s well-being and apply an innovation tool to support this proposal remains valid. Unarguably, evidence-based solutions from the field of psychology and personal development can help understand the approaches to happiness enhancement. This report aims to offer radical solutions for government entities in the UAE that improve the happiness of personnel and analyze those offers using SWOT.
Challenges, Solutions, and SWOT Analysis
While the UAE government declares its efforts towards improving workforce happiness, it is vital to understand the issues that may obstruct the successful implementation of these strategies. Firstly, the economic problems affecting both companies and states can hinder firms from investing in initiatives and projects that do not directly contribute to their bottom line. This is true for the governmental agencies, as well as the happiness enhancement initiatives, which require proper funding. Another challenge is the participation of managers in the project that targets workforce management and ensuring their commitment to the purpose. It is evident that without adequate support from the executive personnel, the strategies will not be carried out properly since they will be responsible for the implementation and control of the proposed solutions.
Finally, an essential element is the development of a viable strategy that can be used across the country in different governmental entities. To ensure success, the initiators should understand that in some cases, the plan will be reviewed and altered to suit the needs of a particular agency. However, the significant issues that can be witnessed in all entities are a sense of pleasure at work, the director’s interest in meeting the requirements of personnel, and commitment to carrying out the daily tasks with more effort. The challenges outlined above present the majority of difficulties that will be considered in the SWOT analysis.
Enhancing the Sense of Pleasure in the Workplace
The primary approach that should be taken by the governmental entities of the UAE to improve the happiness of their employees should be focused on creating an appropriate environment. This includes culture and policy that emphasizes the fact that these institutions value their staff and want to promote their well-being. One strategy is ensuring better team building that taken into account the wishes and preferences of the employees. The objective is to tailor the activities to the personal preferences of individuals working in a specific governmental organization, which can be done through an assessment. Additionally, those should be carried out regularly to maintain the positive effect and continuously enhance the sense of pleasure. An evaluation of each event can help understand the efficiency of the chosen team-building activity.
Strengths of this approach include the fact that it promotes communication between employees and engages them in activities that they are interested in doing. Weaknesses include a need for additional funding that will facilitate team building. This issue consists of a need to hire a consultant who can advise on best practices and strategies that will be beneficial for a particular governmental institution. Moreover, the government entities will have to schedule this event either during work hours or in employees’ free time. Both options can be problematic since reducing the work time of employees can affect their monthly productivity. However, one can anticipate that having the activities during the weekends or after work will result in smaller groups of people taking part in this initiative.
In regards to opportunities, the chosen plan can help improve not only the satisfaction with work but also engagement and cooperation. Since the activities will be tailored to promote teamwork, individuals will be able to learn how to understand each other better, which can be transferred to their daily work life as well. Thus, this will not only affect the sense of pleasure at work but also will impact productivity. The primary threat that should be considered is feedback from the UAE’s citizens who may not find such events necessary because they require financing from the state.
Meeting Staff Requirements
For the directors to show interest in the staff requirements in regards to their psychological needs, it is crucial to make certain that the former are aware of approaches for assessing these needs. This can be done through additional education of these employees on the psychological implications of management on the work outcomes of individuals. In addition to this, these individuals should hold meetings each week with the staff in small groups to discuss their attitudes towards work. It is crucial to pay close attention to the opinions and topics that will be addressed in these meetings because they can be further used to improve workflow.
The strengths of this approach are in the fact that a better understanding of what the staff members need can be used for improving all processes at a particular entity. The weakness is that the training of managers and directors will require time and it can be argued that not all individuals will be able to execute the strategy successfully due to the complexity of psychological implications of workplace happiness. However, this can be mitigated by retaining a simple checklist of what questions can be given to employees to reassure them that their requirements will be met. In addition, several generally appropriate strategies can be developed to enable easy implementation of changes within these entities.
Opportunities involve a better understanding of work-related psychology, which will help directors create a better environment at their entities and provide better services to clients. Additionally, the overall growth of attention towards spirituality and mindfulness will help both directors and their personnel to improve their communication and cooperation. The threats involve a need for rapid changes facilitated by the external environment of the government entities. As was previously mentioned, this strategy requires a dedication of time from the executives. However, the current economic and political conditions, as well as staff expectations, need a quick reaction from the directors.
Staff Commitment
Achieving staff commitment is a complex issue that requires an understanding of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation concepts. The involvement of personnel in their work and making more effort can be improved through the promotion of spirituality. This involves the incorporation of values and ethical believes in the culture of the government entities. The feeling of purpose is one of the critical elements that facilitate workforce happiness. This creates a sense of fulfillment and allows individuals to perform their tasks better. To promote this element of workforce happiness, government entities should review the culture within their institutions. Business tools such as directional statements of mission, vision, and values can be used to ensure that employees are aware of the specifics of their work and the importance of it to the people living in the UAE.
The strength of this approach is reflected in the influential culture that will be present across all entities, and that will correspond to the specific tasks of each institution. The weakness, however, is that a unified vision cannot be created for different government organizations since each is concerned with various matters. Thus, time and effort from the directors will be required to develop and implement the new directional statements. The opportunities involve a possibility to discover new strategies for carrying out daily tasks that will be more effective by reviewing the new values statements. Finally, the threats include an option of miscommunicating the directional statements to both the staff and the public, which will lead to confusion and misunderstandings. A careful strategy of marketing these beliefs is required to ensure success and enhanced commitment of the personnel to their work.
Conclusion
Overall, this paper reviewed challenges that obstruct the promotion of workplace happiness in UAE government entities. The primary problems include encouragement of a sense of pleasure at work, the director’s interest in meeting the psychological requirements of the personnel, and enhanced commitment and more effort from the employees. To overcome the difficulties of managing well-being, three main strategies were proposed, including team building for improved communication, training of managers, and promotion of spirituality and values. A SWOT analysis was performed for each of these offers to examine their validity.